Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:Stuff I saw When I Went Clothing Shopping

I find that with my new daily posts, I seem to shy away from contemporary clothing in a way that I didn’t before. I just finished a bunch of future Marisole Monday & Friends paper doll posts and not one of them is a contemporary fashion set. (There is, however, a super cool 1920s golf outfit that’ll go up in a few weeks and it’s darn cute.)

The point is that I do believe in paper doll diversity. That doesn’t mean that I only want to have a lot of skin tones. It also means that I want variety of themes.

I like variety. Variety keeps me amused.

So, anyway, I am going to try to draw more contemporary stuff. After all, sometimes paper dolls want to flounce around in huge dresses and sometimes they want to wear skinny jeans.

Today, I decided that the Buxom & Bodacious got some cute modern clothing. A few months back, I went shopping for some casual clothing and I tried on some things a lot like these. First of all, none of them look good on me, but that’s what paper dolls are for!

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Can I confess that my favorite part of today’s curvy paper doll to print are those amazing boots? I want them. I don’t know where I would ever wear them, but I would find a way.

For a while, Julie of Paper Doll School was making Toddler Paper Dolls inspired by some of her older paper doll sets. Like this toddler paper doll set named Riley is based on an older set named Ruby. I thought this was a really cool idea, but wasn’t sure how to develop it my way.

On occasion readers have asked if I could redraw something from one paper doll series for a different series. I’ve always said no. Drawing the exact same outfit again sounded boring. But watching Julie’s process, I was inspired to look back at my own work and see what ideas were sparked.

So, today’s curvy paper doll to print from the B&B series is based on a Pixie paper doll named Dionsia. The paper dolls share a color scheme and Dionsia’s clothing inspired both today’s gown and tomorrow’s gown- both for my curvy B&B paper doll series.

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Tomorrow, there will be another fantasy gown inspired by the Dionsia paper doll set and owls.

Every week I seem to end up with a favorite dress. I sometimes like to save those dresses for Friday as a way of brightening up at the very end of the week.

Today’s dress is based on Mia’s Garden Ballgowns, a set I did in 2014 based on Wa and Qu Lolita fashions. The color scheme was a little challenging, as it was based on a kimono. I wanted to see how the same colors worked on a totally different dress style. Big fluffy ballgowns vs a simple medieval inspired one.

This time I wanted to do something more vivid and vibrant which is why I went with the rich purple for the body of the over dress and accented it with the undresses cloud blue. The “black” is actually a very very dark red and it’s a subtle thing, but I think it softens the look.

A Curvy Medieval Maiden and her Fantastic Fantasy Wardrobe

So, I am super hopeful I will get a set done for next week. I confess that it is Friday and nothing is done yet, but I want to make something for Monday. Things have just been very busy this week, so if I end up having to go on a short Haitus, I’ll make the announcement on Monday.

Meanwhile, follow the blog on Twitter @paperpersonas and if you love the blog, think about becoming a Patron. There’s a Patron only dress this week, if that’s a lure for anyone.

I hope you all have a great weekend. I’ll be spending mine vacuuming a lot. Stupid fleas.

Today’s Accessory Thursday post is a little late and I feel guilty about that, but in my defense, let me explain.

So, remember how I said I was moving? And I did move and I love my new place. However, the previous tenant had pets.

And I discovered Monday that those pets left behind some… friends. Small jumping biting friends.

Fleas.

I reported my unwanted roommates on Monday. They sprayed the unit yesterday and I spent most of yesterday evening either out or sitting on the back patio while the unit aired out. But seriously, I have never been more happy to smell the scent of pesticide in my life.

Anyway, with all the laundry and other things I’ve been doing, there just wasn’t time to work on this blog post much.

Today, we have three pairs of shoes. Each one is colored to match one of the three dresses, including the paper doll dress that goes up on Friday. There’s also a book and a musical instrument and some papers. I struggle a little with scale sometimes with the B&B dolls, because they have such huge heads.

(Don’t get me wrong, I like huge heads, but it makes some stuff challenging.)

I never used to like pink. I mean, I went through a phase when I was like four and I demanded that my room be painted pink. My mother kindly did this for me. Later, the room was painted a bright yellow. I distinctly recall returning from camp or something and the room suddenly being yellow. My mother had painted it while I was away, though I do at least remember that she had asked me if I minded it being yellow before she painted it. During this whole time, I refused to wear pink. Pink, I decided sometime around second grade, was not a color for me.

I’m saying all this, because I have completely come around to pink. I think it is a beautiful color. I have to stick to brighter or darker pinks in the real world, but in paper doll land, the sky is the limit on my shades of pink.

So, today’s paper doll dress was colored using the color scheme from Dreaming Princess as the base. Dreaming Princess is one of the most complexly patterned sets I have done in years and the color scheme was a real struggle. Still, I loved how the original set came out and I wanted to adapt those colors to today’s paper doll dress to print.

Every paper doll dress is a little different, of course. Yesterday, we had an autumnal scheme. Today’s dress, I think is more spring-like. I am, I confess, not totally pleased with how the hem detail turned out. I didn’t properly adjust it for the curve of the paper doll’s body. I’m a bit disappointed in myself.

Anyway, enjoy the paper doll dress! Tomorrow we have shoes and stockings.

These are the sorts of dresses I draw when I am feeling exhausted and I know I have to get a set done. Is that a bad thing to admit? It’s not that I don’t enjoy drawing them, but they don’t take a lot of mental energy. It’s like safe drawing. There’s not a lot of stretching here.

Sometimes though, I do think that is okay.

As I said on Monday, the color schemes for all of this week’s outfits are based on previously posted printable paper doll sets. For example, today’s paper doll dress for the B&B series is based on my Pixie series paper doll Malina who was posted in 2014. I have always really loved Malina’s color scheme and I thought it was a fun one to transform into this medieval fantasy dress. Malina is a contemporary fashion paper doll, but I think her color scheme is very universally autumnal.

It’s September and it should be chilly and there should be changing leaves. I confess I am getting neither changing leaves nor chilly weather here in Alabama, but I want it! I love the autumn and I want to get to experience some of it, darn it!

Now, a friendly reminder, you can get the doll that I drew to go with today’s printable paper doll dress from Monday’s post, but feel free to dress up any of the B&B dolls in this fantasy gown.

Also, if you like the blog and want to help me keep it online, please consider becoming a Patron. I know I say this a lot, but it really does help me subsidize the server, security and related costs to running PTP.

And, of course, I always love to hear what you think about today’s dress.

Our theme this week is fantasy gowns and this is the first Bodacious & Buxom set of paper dolls to be posted in the new format! Exciting, no? (Okay, maybe just for me.)

A few things, every dress this week was colored based on the color scheme of an older paper doll set which I thought was kinda a cool idea. Plus it saved me from having to come up with color schemes all my own. See? Saved by my own laziness.

That’ll start tomorrow.

Meanwhile, our curvy fantasy paper doll has a nightgown, because every girl needs a nightgown. My only big regret with this paper doll is her hair. I had planned on a big, over the top, fantasy hair style, but then I thought it didn’t go with the dresses and I think I redrew her hair about six times before finally saying, “Good Riddance!”

And just making it long and simple.

If you’re thinking, her hair is boring, I want a different model… I’ve set up a Dolls category and a Clothing category for the Bodacious and Buxom paper dolls and I am currently working on populating those categories for the other paper doll series. So, you can find all the dolls and all the clothing.

Meanwhile, please feel free to follow the blog on Twitter @paperpersonas. And if you love it, support it through Patreon. Patrons get early previews, extra outfits and to listen to me ramble about process.

And who doesn’t want to listen to me ramble about that?

Patron or not, I hope you enjoy today’s paper doll and her dresses this week.

One of my goals for 2016 was to draw ten historical paper dolls. I confess I am far from achieving that goal and we’re halfway though the year (nearly), so I seriously need to get my act together on this one. So, my goal for the next few days is to buckle down and get some drawing, scanning and finishing done.

We’ll see how that goes.

I have a few days off work and I always start these things with a long list of “goals”, but I fear my plans are often larger than my capacity. Still, I’m out of backlog and nothing is as good as an artist motivation as desperation.

Picking out colors wasn’t very hard, since I seem to always come back to the same ones when it comes to the 1300s. I blame it on medieval manuscripts I have seen. I always think of the 14th century was being red and blue and gold.

Between my new 1300s Buxom and Bodacious paper doll, my viking paper doll, and my Cranach paper doll, we’re starting to get a pretty nice set of early Western Fashions. I keep promising myself I’ll do one from a decade of the 19th century, but I can’t pick one. So, 19th century B&B series suggestions would be welcomed.

My best-friend in highschool and middle-school was a curvy girl with a goth and punk style. Now, this might not seem like an odd thing to be today, but in Juneau, Alaska, in the early 2000s, this was practically unheard of. In the early days of internet commerce, buying a corset in Alaska required a willingness to shop online when the online options were limited to Amazon and a few catalog retailers. So, when I sat down to draw today’s curvy goth paper doll, I knew I wanted to celebrate my old friend and her willingness to break the mold.

Despite my interest in alt-fashion, I have never really wanted to wear it in public, but I respect people whose style choices are much more adventurous than mine.

Not that it is hard to be more adventurous than the girl who wears white shirts and cardigans to work nearly every day.

Anyway, when I work on designing something for a fashion genre, I try very hard to be as authentic as possible. Of course, as an outsider to any cultural group, it is nearly impossible to capture all the nuances, but I wanted for my goth paper doll to have a nice range to mix and match pieces which could also share with other paper dolls. After all, maybe she’ll want to wear a sundress or some thigh high platform boots one day.

Color schemes for anything goth is going to be a lot of black (obviously) and I didn’t want to try to really break the mold here, so I stuck with my old friends favorite colors- black, red, and purple. Lavender was a Victorian color of mourning, so that seemed appropriate. Though the Victorians took their mourning culture way seriously.

While my natural tendency is to avoid patterns, I wanted at least one patterned piece in the bunch and a corset seemed like an obvious choice. The skull and roses pattern is mirrored in her purse and the limited color palette means I think it can go with either skirt.

I have always loved patent leather, so the boots were an obvious place to make some shiny-texture. I am out of practice with that technique though and it took three or four tries to get it right. I’m still not in love with the outcome, but I’ll live.

Looking for more goth paper dolls? I have a whole tag for gothic fashion, though looking through it, I confess I thought I had more gothic paper dolls.

Hmmm…. Maybe I need to draw some more, because there’s not a lot there.

Should I draw more Gothic Fashion paper dolls?

Yes, I really like that style. (77%, 37 Votes)

No, I'm not that into Gothic. (17%, 8 Votes)

Actually, I'd rather see something that I'll tell you in a comment. (6%, 3 Votes)

Allow me to be blunt, I am not one of those people who gets upset about skimpy lady armor. I am far too big of a fan of Xena and Hercules for that, but I think there is a place in my fantasy world for skimpy armor and there is a place in my fantasy world for practical armor and mostly there is a place for stuff that falls in-between. Today’s paper doll is a female knight whose armor falls more into the practical camp than the skimpy armor camp.

But don’t worry skimpy armor fans, I’ve got a B&B set planned that falls into that camp, too.

I knew I was going to give my female knight short hair from the beginning, but that was because I originally had conceptions of drawing a helmet. Well, helmets are HARD, so instead we have her without a helmet, but with short hair. Actually, I think the paper doll, if not her clothing, could easily hop into the modern era and be a young stylish Black woman in 2016, but right she’s being a young stylish knight.

Over the years, I have always struggled with chainmail. I think this chainmail is slightly better than some, but I worry its too obvious where I patched together my swatches of tiny circles. Also, is it chainmail, chainmaile, chain mail or chain maile? Does anyone know?